ACTUALITS

Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announces record figure of US $471 million for malaria

Geneva, 12 November 2007. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today announced a total of US $471 million for malaria control over the next two years - the largest amount approved for malaria control in a single round of grant-making . Successful countries include Angola, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guyana, Iran, Lao, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Sao Tome, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor Leste, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zambia, with 62% of eligible malaria proposals recommended for funding. Of the total amount recommended for Round 7 for all three diseases (US$1,119 billion), grants for malaria represent 42%.

"This is exciting news," said Prof Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. "Country leadership and reliable funding are crucial if we are to scale-up malaria control activities to achieve impact and save lives - we must build on this success."

Last year, just over one quarter of all malaria control proposals submitted to the Global Fund were considered worthy of financing, putting many national malaria control programmes across Africa in jeopardy. In response to this low success rate, the RBM Partnership led an aggressive campaign to help countries improve the quality of their proposals. Nineteen countries were identified for a package of comprehensive assistance that included support from consultants, training workshops in Kenya and Cameroon, and "mock" Technical Review Panels. This was the first coordinated initiative by the global malaria community to work with countries in developing quality proposals. A broad range of partners including BASF, Columbia University Earth Institute/ Millennium Project, ExxonMobil, the Gates Foundation, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, MACEPA, Malaria No More, PSI, UN Foundation, UNDP, UNICEF, the US President's Malaria Initiative, Vestergaard Fransen, Voices, WHO, and the World Bank, supported targeted technical assistance and this year the scope and quality of the proposals has improved, doubling success rates from Round 6.

The fight against malaria has been gaining momentum. Donor funding has grown approximately 300% in the last three years to around $1 billion annually and countries like Eritrea, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Zambia, and the Tanzanian islands of Zanzibar are proving that it is possible to dramatically reduce the burden of malaria when strong government leadership is backed with predictable financing.

Turned down for Round 6 funding, Liberia's supply of life-saving antimalarial medicine was on the verge of running out in December last year and needed emergency support to finance its drug supply. Today, Liberia is celebrating as much as $37 million in Round 7 funding, which will be used to vastly expand access to insecticide-treated bed nets and to effective antimalarial medicine, while also providing salaries and training for malaria-control staff.

Over 90% of the world's malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where a child dies very 30 seconds of the mosquito-borne disease. There is an estimated $US 3.2 billion yearly gap to achieve global malaria control. At the Gates Malaria Forum last month, Bill and Melinda Gates recently called on the world to work towards the ambitious goal of malaria eradication.

Contacts

Pru Smith smithp@who.int+41 79 477 1744

Hervé Verhooselverhooselh@who.int+ 41 79 701 9480

To provide a coordinated global approach to fighting malaria, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership was launched in 1998 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank.

The RBM Partnership has expanded exponentially since its launch and is now made up of a wide range of partners - including malaria-endemic countries, their bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, nongovernmental and community-based organizations, foundations, and research and academic institutions - who bring a formidable assembly of expertise, infrastructure and funds into the fight against the disease.